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Petey-ed

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 17, 2009
273
9
I saw the amazing new PIP feature they are adding to the iPad for watching videos always fixed on forefront of your screen, however why can't we have the same features for OS X? There use to be some apps that would do this, but I think they have since been unsupported. Anybody have any thoughts?
 

rorschach

macrumors 68020
Jul 27, 2003
2,299
1,977
Both QuickTime Player and iTunes have an option to float movie windows above everything else.

Now what would be useful is to have a similar option for videos embedded in websites. Imagine if you could "break out" any web video player into a dedicated, floating window.
 

KALLT

macrumors 603
Sep 23, 2008
5,380
3,415
Both QuickTime Player and iTunes have an option to float movie windows above everything else.

Now what would be useful is to have a similar option for videos embedded in websites. Imagine if you could "break out" any web video player into a dedicated, floating window.

You can open many videos in external players. All you have to do is copy the media file URL (right-click on videos often works) and open it in QuickTime or VLC (QuickTime: File > Open Location).

An option to do this from the website itself would be nice, but I think that web developers can add such options to their web videos or web media players. It just isn't a widely demanded thing, I guess. Maybe something for a Safari extension?
 

kwokaaron

macrumors 6502a
Sep 20, 2013
577
264
London, UK
I saw the amazing new PIP feature they are adding to the iPad for watching videos always fixed on forefront of your screen, however why can't we have the same features for OS X? There use to be some apps that would do this, but I think they have since been unsupported. Anybody have any thoughts?
I'm pretty sure Safari 9 in El Capitan has that. If I recall the developer notes correctly it has Picture in Picture support.
 

Tourgott

macrumors member
May 18, 2014
88
18
Stuttgart
I'm pretty sure Safari 9 in El Capitan has that. If I recall the developer notes correctly it has Picture in Picture support.
Are you sure? That would be fantastic because when I saw the iOS 9 presentation I thought exactly the same. We need this PIP for OS X.
 

Petey-ed

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 17, 2009
273
9
I'm glad I'm not the only one here who feels this would be valuable. I would actually most prefer it for youtube.
 
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MikhailT

macrumors 601
Nov 12, 2007
4,583
1,327
I'm pretty sure Safari 9 in El Capitan has that. If I recall the developer notes correctly it has Picture in Picture support.

Are you sure it is not iOS 9 you are thinking of?

Although right now, our DP1 is a month or more behind the WWDC build and it has Safari 8.1, not 9.0.

Hopefully, we will see it in the next DP2.

Update: I just finished watching the What's new in web development in WebKit and Safari, it it only mentioned PIP support for iPad, nothing else.
 
Last edited:

Petey-ed

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 17, 2009
273
9
Why is this not a OS X thing? I wish I could remember the software name that brought apps to the foreground permanently from back in the Tiger/Leopard/Lion days.....
 

kwokaaron

macrumors 6502a
Sep 20, 2013
577
264
London, UK
Are you sure it is not iOS 9 you are thinking of?

Although right now, our DP1 is a month or more behind the WWDC build and it has Safari 8.1, not 9.0.

Hopefully, we will see it in the next DP2.

Update: I just finished watching the What's new in web development in WebKit and Safari, it it only mentioned PIP support for iPad, nothing else.
I just checked the prerelease Mac Developer Library for El Capitan. It's listed under the "What's New in Safari" document. It should be under the HTML5 Media section. Not sure if that means it'll be supported in El Capitan or iOS though.

Update: Just looked at the main El Capitan webpage under the developer site and it's listed there.
 
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Petey-ed

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 17, 2009
273
9
is this just going to be safari related? Or will apps be able to utilize it on OS X?
 

TETENAL

macrumors 6502
Nov 29, 2014
258
281
is this just going to be safari related? Or will apps be able to utilize it on OS X?
OS X has freely resizable and stackable windows. Applications can do whatever they want since 10.0.

In fact I can remember floating video windows in System 7.
 

mikecwest

macrumors 65816
Jul 7, 2013
1,193
496
Both QuickTime Player and iTunes have an option to float movie windows above everything else.

Now what would be useful is to have a similar option for videos embedded in websites. Imagine if you could "break out" any web video player into a dedicated, floating window.


That is a horrible idea, that means that websites will force their advertisement videos on top of everything.
 

MikhailT

macrumors 601
Nov 12, 2007
4,583
1,327
That is a horrible idea, that means that websites will force their advertisement videos on top of everything.

Websites cannot force this, it must be broken out by the user manually. PIP works by clicking on a button in the video player to break out, just like AirPlay button to stream it to your AppleTV. Website cannot force their streams to show up via AirPlay on your AppleTV without your permission.

In addition, PIP is coming to OS X but Apple hasn't enabled it yet. It was mentioned in their dev notes for Safari 9 on OS X that it would be supported.
 

KALLT

macrumors 603
Sep 23, 2008
5,380
3,415
If it were available for El Capitan, wouldn’t we have seen some tests by now?

Edit; never mind.
 

rorschach

macrumors 68020
Jul 27, 2003
2,299
1,977
That is a horrible idea, that means that websites will force their advertisement videos on top of everything.

Well it apparently is possible in Safari 9.

And it doesn't allow developers to automatically force a video to play over everything. It's just like it is on iOS — the user taps on an icon to enter that view.
 
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